Stephen E. Seckler Send email Managing Director 40 Broad Street, Boston, MA 02109 Tel: (617) 338-4588 Fax: (617) 338-4544 Toll-Free: (800) 807-9056 Juris Doctor, Northeastern University School of Law Hear an interview with Steve Seckler Take Steve's On-line Career Audit Stephen Seckler is Managing Director of our Boston office. Previously, he spent eight years building his own consulting firm, Seckler Legal Consulting. During his time as a consultant, he recruited lawyers for law firms and corporations and coached dozens of lawyers on a variety of career and marketing issues. His coaching clients came from all segments of the legal community from senior partners at large firms to sole practitioners. Steve maintains a blog on career and marketing issues facing the legal community at Counsel to Counsel, which is an affiliate of the Law.Com Network. Counsel to Counsel was recently named to the ABA Journal's Blawg100, the 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers, as chosen by the editors of the ABA Journal. For six years, Steve published an electronic newsletter, Seckler's Legal Digest, which provided the bar with links to useful career and marketing resources. He facilitated a monthly career roundtable for the Career Services Committee of the New England Corporate Counsel Association and sat on the Boston Bar Association's Committee on Work/Life Balance. He was also an active member of the Steering Committee of the Solo and Small Firm Practice Section of the BBA. Steve has devoted his entire legal career to helping lawyers get the most from their careers. From 1989 through 1996, he worked as a program attorney for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, where he was responsible for developing hundreds of professional education programs for a leading CLE provider. He speaks and writes frequently on career and marketing issues and authors a column for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly entitled Career Consult. He is qualified to administer the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (he is an ENFP) and is interested in law office technology, management and entrepreneurship. CAREER SATISFACTION Before You Quit Your Day Job Building a Reputation for Yourself as an Industry Expert. Broken promises in lateral hiring A Career Audit for Associates Finding a New Home for Your Practice Managing Your Career in a Declining Market Have You Gone For Your Annual Career Checkup? Bush v. Gore: Career Lessons from Campaign 2000 Making the Most of Your Law Firm Experience On Salary Inflation: Funds vs. Fulfillment Making a Lateral Move: Are you ready? Offering Some Belated New Year's Resolutions Achieving Career Satisfaction Book Review: America's Greatest Places to Work With a Law Degree CAREER BALANCE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE LAW Is Anyone Out There Happy? Striving for Professional Mediocrity In Search of Work/Life Balance The Delicate Matter of Reducing Your Hours The Business Case For Professional Fulfillment Book Review: What Can You Do With a Law Degree? CAREER DEVELOPMENT The importance of taking stock of your career Two essential books for your career library Email: career opportunities and pitfalls Career Lessons From a Law Firm Dissolution Inexpensive Ways to Build Business Relationships Overcoming Resistance to Change Meditation, Mediation, Marketing and Medication Lawyers See Benefit in Professional Coaching Responding to Criticism: Survival Strategies Creating a Visibility Plan BBA Lunches: A Great Resource at the Right Price Marketing As A Career Development Strategy Making the Transition from Serving Your Clients to Finding Them Assertive Communication Gets Better Results IN-HOUSE CAREERS Frequently Asked Questions on In-House Legal Careers A critical assessment of in-house legal careers In House Salaries: Getting A Fair Deal In House Salaries are Not Always Evenhanded Hiring your first in-house counsel Part-time General Counsel TOOLS FOR A JOB SEARCH FAQ about Legal Recruiting What the recruiting process can tell you about a firm Speak the Truth and Nothing But the Truth During Job Interviews How'm I doin'?-an On-line Career Assessment Tool How legal search firms get paid for their services What to Do When the Offer Comes too Soon. Beyond the Listings: Why Use a Search Firm? Maintaining Confidentiality During a Job Search Finding the right way to explain a negative 10 ways to reciprocate in networking Survival tips for your next lateral move Ways to leverage your network Some tips for job hunting in a recession Questions to ask when it's time to listen Dating and networking etiquette Is your networking working Resume writing tips Interviewing tips Evaluating a job offer non-financial issues. Unplanned Problems when Changing jobs Help in finding an entry level job "The Boston Legal Market", Georgetown University Law Center, April 10, 2008. "So what's next: Navigating a Lateral Move from Large Firm Practice", Harvard Law School, March 19, 2007 "How to Market Yourself and Your Firm as a Young Associate", sponsored by the Solo & Small Firm Section and New Lawyers Section of the Boston Bar Association, February 9, 2006 "Update on the Legal Market in Boston", University of Michigan School of Law, April 5, 2006. "Update on the Legal Market in Boston", Northwestern University School of Law, April 7, 2006 Quoted in "Transient associates experience big chill" (Boston Business Journal, Friday, May 9, 2008) Quoted in "Alumni Networks Help Law Firms to Combat Shortages" (Boston Business Journal, Friday, March 14, 2008) Quoted in "D.C. legal staffing firm expands with Boston outpost" (Boston Business Journal, October 26, 2007) Quoted in "Summer associates put classwork into practice" (Boston Business Journal, July 27, 2007) Featured in "For Associates: Online Tool to Help Assess Your Law Firm Experience" (JD Bliss, July 23, 2007) Featured in "Coachology: Point your legal career in the right direction" (the Brazen Careerist, July 20 2007) Quoted in "Recruiters put on consulting hat in tight labor market" (Boston Business Journal, March 23, 2007) Quoted in "Howdy, Partner" (Arrive, March/April, 2007) Featured in "Counsel to Counsel: The Blog of Stephen Seckler—Attorney Turned Recruiter and Coach" (JD Bliss blog, December 5, 2006) Quoted in "Career transitions, like life, are about the journey, not the destination" (Northeastern Law Magazine, Winter 2006) Quoted in "Boost in M&A, PE spells more work for law firms" (The Boston Business Journal, August 1, 2005) Quoted in "Summer Associates See Slight Thaw in Hiring" (The National Law Journal, April 20, 2005) Quoted in "Niche marketing emerges as merger 'countertrend'" (The Boston Business Journal, March 7, 2005) Quoted in "Firms' summer hiring reflects bullish legal outlook" (The Boston Business Journal, June 28, 2004) Quoted in "Despite law school gains, women-owned law firms remain rarities" (The Boston Business Journal, March 31, 2003) Quoted in "Peabody & Arnold steadies after upheaval" (The Boston Business Journal, March 24, 2003) Quoted in "Mintz Levin partner brings book to Greenberg office" (The Boston Business Journal, September 23, 2002) Quoted in "Two midsize legal firms rebound after defections" (The Boston Business Journal, June 3, 2002) Quoted in "Firms chop first-year lawyer pay" (The Boston Business Journal, April 8, 2002) As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to thank you for all your work with respect to my job search in Boston. Your vast knowledge of the Boston legal market, development of a sound strategy to assist me in finding a job and the extremely well-written introductory note that you prepared on my behalf allayed many of my job search concerns. I was amazed by the number of offers I received and I attribute that largely to you. J.S. I had a relationship with a recruiter before applying to Boston and while I think she has been helpful, I don't think she is as well connected as your organization is. Moreover, I decided to try Stephen out for some of my Boston applications and was deeply impressed by his concern regarding all my issues with moving there (work type, family concerns, my wife's career). M.G. Steve's assistance with my job search was invaluable. Being relatively new to this city, I had some basic degree of knowledge regarding the personalities of the different firms in town; but Steve was able to fill in a lot of holes. His recommendations as to which firms would suit my interests and which seemed to be in the market for lateral associates with my qualifications were very sound. After working with me to come up with a list of firms to target, Steve prepared a cover memo that would accompany my resume; his memo made a concise, powerful case as to why I would be a perfect candidate for the target firms. And it was effective: I received an interview with the firm I was most interested in, was invited back for another round of interviews, and ultimately received and accepted the firm's offer. Steve was a good sounding board throughout the interview process; and, in short, he gets my strong, unqualified endorsement as a levelheaded and knowledgeable resource for any lawyer looking to make a move in this area. D.B. Over the course of the past year, I worked with over a dozen Boston-area legal recruiters. Steve Seckler turned out to be by far the best recruiter I found and was ultimately the one who placed me in a new position. The vast majority of recruiters I found worked off of a model which was, I believe, in direct opposition to my best interests as a candidate—they started with a list of open positions and tried to force me into one of their existing profiles. Steve did the opposite; he spent a substantial amount of time with me at the beginning of the process and learned about my skill set and what I was looking for. He then wrote detailed introduction letters on my behalf, which he submitted not only to employers with posted positions but also to employers who were not hiring but who seemed like a good fit. In addition to being pleased with the amount of time and effort Steve invested in my search, I was impressed by his knowledge of the greater Boston legal market and understanding of how my specific skill set matched or didn't [match] available positions. Steve was a very pleasant person to work with and always responded quickly and helpfully to my questions. I have recommended Steve to numerous colleagues and would continue to do so, without reservation, to anyone in the market. He is a refreshing and effective exception to the impersonal cold-call culture that unfortunately seems to dominate the recruiting area. D.J. I prefer to work with you because I believe you are a real professional in this field. The cover letter you drafted is really impressive. H.L. Steve has taken significant time to get to know me in our telephone conversations and through e-mail. He has also demonstrated a real dedication to my job search, identifying opportunities that go beyond the "big firm" placement mentality of other recruiters with whom I have worked in the past. By working with Steve and BCG, I feel as though I have an ally in my corner and that I'm no longer managing my job search alone. A.H.